Monday 1st March 2004

An early start today as we had a lot to show Judy, including a visit to Cradle Mountain. We managed to get away just after 9.am (Ok, remember daylight saving - that's 8.am real time!) and headed east with Cradle Mountain being the main destination for the day.

We first went out through Red Hill, Needles,Chudliegh and Mole Creek where we stopped briefly at the rail station, but still not trains coming through. (See journal page dated 25 February 2004).

After leaving Mole Creek we took the high road through Mole Creek National Park before descending down to cross the Forth River near the Cethana Hydro Power Station. We stopped for a photograph or two at the river crossing then continued on through Moina and up to Cradle Mountain.

At Cradle Mountain we parked in the Information Centre car park again and after a warm cup of tea and blueberry muffin in the cold breeze (lovingly cooked and served by Pam's cold hands) we caught the shuttle bus down to Ronnie's Creek, then walked along the walk trail (three and a half kilometre walk) through the bush land, past Lilla Lake and on to Dove Lake at the base of Cradle Mountain. Although it is the end of summer, there were patches of snow on the mountain top and the breeze blowing past us obviously came across that snow on the way down to greet us. We then caught the shuttle bus back to our car, had our sandwiches for lunch then set of again, this time heading for Gunns Plain.

On the way to Gunns Plain we took a deviation and ended up in at Leven Canyon where we walked the 600 metres to the viewing platform. Although we had been there before, it was great to see it again and to show Judy some of the sights we thought were really worth visiting.

From Leven canyon we continued on to Gunns Plain were we stopped at a lookout spot and picked enough blackberries to go on the ice cream tonight. After leaving Gunns Plain we drove back to Deloraine via North Motton, Gawler, and the town centres of Ulverstone, and Devonport.

Arriving back in Deloraine at about 5:45pm, just in time to get the roast pork in the oven, e-mails completed and the web site updated.

Judy and Pam warming their hands in front of a mural fire in Sheffield

It was intended to be a shorter day today and it was, but not by a lot of time, just by kilometres traveled. Picked up Judy from her motel at about 10:05am and then set out for Alum Cliffs via Red Hills, Needes and Chudliegh. We walked the 800 metres from the car park to the lookout where more photographs were taken. We then returned to the car park for a well earned cup of tea and blueberry muffins.

From Alum Cliffs we traveled. further west and stopped on the side of the road to pick some blackberries, apples and miniature plums that seem to grow wild on the side of the road in many places. We then continued on to Marakoopa Cave to investigate the underground. Arriving just in time to join an escorted tour starting at 12:pm. The cave tour took us about 700 metres into the cave and passed through several chambers, each one being different. There are two creeks running through the cave and one chamber had a very brilliant display of glow worms. Other chambers displayed large stalactites and stalagmites and also some columns where they meet in the middle. The cave was first discovered in 1909 by two nine year old boys and they kept it a secret for about four years before they told their father. The mind boggles at what the boys did, entering the cave with just a candle for light and no one knowing they were in there. The cave experience was well worth the $11 per person (thanks to Judy) to go through and should be on the list of things to see when anyone comes to this part of Tasmania.

From the caves, we then set off in a northerly direction toward Paradise and Sheffield again. We stopped and had lunch in Paradise, however Judy said she didn't feel like she was in paradise at the time. I'm not sure where she was at that time but she definitely was there when we picked some more blackberries for sweets after the sandwiches we had for lunch.

We arrived in Sheffield about 2:15pm and parked in the street to do the walk around the town and to show Judy many of the murals we had seen on our previous visit and we even saw more that we hadn't seen previously. When looking though a magazine on the murals in the town, it became obvious that we had only seen about half of them by the time we left Sheffield at about 3:30pm. However as it was getting toward afternoon tea time, one of us was determined to get to the Raspberry Farm for scones, Raspberry jam and cream.

We made it! About 4:06 pm we sat down to a treat that Judy shouted us, the scones were judged to be magnificent by one of us and the others couldn't disagree. After this treat we then set off back to Deloraine so we would be in time to fuel up the Patrol (83 ltrs @ 99.9 cpl), refill the 9 kg gas bottle ($18) and get ready for our move tomorrow to Stanley which is on the North West coast of Tasmania, about 170 km from Deloraine.

Wednesday 3rd March 2004

Settled in Stanley Caravan and Cabin Park with 'The Nut Rock' (extinct volcano) in the background.

We were on the move today so not a lot of sight seeing took place, other than that which passed by our window on the way from Deloraine to Stanley.

We we up and ready to go by 9:30am when we picked judy up from her motel, returned to the caravan park, hooked up the caravan then moved off before 10:am. we set off on the Bass Highway via Elizabeth Town, Latrobe, Devenport, Ulverston, Burnie, Wynyard, Boat Harbour, Rocky Cape, Araluen, Hellyer, Edgecombe Beach and Crayfish Creek before arriving in Stanley at about 12:05pm.

We found the country changed again on the way up and as we came closer to Stanley, the mountainous country gave away to rolling hills (some steep ones as well) and smaller trees of a different type to those found in the highland country. Stanley itself is set on a peninsula that juts northward into the sea, but it has an extinct volcano on the north east tip that stands over the small town of Stanley. From the information we have been able to obtain to this point, there appears to be quite a number of sights and activities to see and participate in around the area. We have already booked a river cruise up the Arthur River on Friday (they were all booked out prior to that) which is an all day event. That is if you call five hours all day, however it is still a seventy five kilometre drive to get to Arthur river before the cruise starts.

After settling the caravan in to it's new location and Judy settled in to her motel unit right next door to the caravan, one of us decided we needed to go shopping again and the other one was outnumbered, so off we went on the twenty minute drive to Smithton, about 16 kilometres further west on the Bass Highway. Once there we had a drive around the town and as there was not a Coles store we eventually settled for the Woolworths store to do some food shopping in. Although we had only been food shopping on Saturday, we seemed to fill up another shopping trolley before we came out of the store. Then came the drive back to Stanley and the usual nightly ritual of web site updating, e-mail sending and as one of us suggests, the most important part of the night - food and a couple of drinks.